Opinion / Columnist
It's high time foreign governments took the lead in investigating Zimbabwe's corrupt elite
03 May 2025 at 11:48hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe ruling elite clearly won't act against high-level corruption.
There is something profoundly disturbing about the silence of Zimbabwean authorities in the wake of the damning exposé by South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and the elite Hawks investigative unit.
The scandal surrounding the South African company Ren-Form CC and its reported funneling of R800 million to firms allegedly linked to Zimbabwean tender mogul Wicknell Chivayo, after being awarded a lucrative Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) contract worth R1.1 billion, has sparked intense outrage - but not from where it matters most.
The absence of any formal, transparent response from Zimbabwe's Treasury, the ZEC, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), or any other state organ speaks louder than any denial ever could.
What we are witnessing is not mere indifference - it is complicity.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
The refusal to address allegations of this magnitude, which involve massive cross-border financial transactions potentially amounting to money laundering and electoral fraud, suggests that these individuals being implicated are not simply rogue actors operating in isolation.
Rather, they are plausibly working as runners, fronting for powerful political figures who use them to loot public funds while insulating themselves from direct scrutiny.
It is a model of corruption that has become all too familiar in Zimbabwe - politically connected individuals receive multi-million-dollar state contracts through opaque tender processes, only for those funds to vanish into a maze of shell companies and foreign bank accounts.
The beneficiaries flaunt obscene wealth - dishing out luxury cars to celebrities and public figures - while the architects of these schemes remain hidden behind the veil of political power.
Disturbingly, those implicated in corruption are now celebrated as role models and “philanthropists,” masking looted wealth as generosity.
These individuals have mastered the art of laundering their public image - taking advantage of the very poverty and underdevelopment they helped create through their looting of national resources.
By making flashy donations, handing out freebies, or even opening free clinics, they attempt to “cleanse” their vices and appear benevolent.
Yet the truth is far more sinister - they are not philanthropists but heartless criminals who robbed the nation blind, leaving citizens in such destitution that they are now forced to gratefully accept handouts from the very thieves who impoverished them in the first place.
This has dangerous consequences for our nation.
It is creating a toxic culture in which corruption is no longer viewed as criminal but rather as a symbol of cleverness and success in surviving Zimbabwe's economic hardships.
It becomes an aspiration, not an aberration.
This normalization of grand theft - even glamorizing it - erodes the moral fabric of society and embeds corruption deeper into our national psyche.
It teaches the youth that the path to wealth is not through hard work or innovation, but through political patronage and fraud.
A society that rewards plunder instead of integrity cannot prosper - it implodes from within.
Beyond the moral decay, such entrenched corruption poses a grave national security threat.
The unchecked flow of illicit money finances political patronage networks, arms criminal syndicates, fuels instability, and undermines public trust in institutions.
When citizens lose faith in government's willingness or ability to uphold the law, they begin to look elsewhere - even to violence - to resolve their grievances.
A captured state is inherently unstable.
The case of Wicknell Chivayo and the Ren-Form deal is an indictment not just of a man, but of an entire apparatus of state capture.
That Zimbabwe's elections were essentially privatized through such clandestine dealings - with a foreign firm hand-picked to supply everything from ballot papers to servers and toilets - raises the possibility that our electoral process is for sale to the highest bidder.
How can citizens have confidence in the credibility of any election when its logistics are shrouded in corruption and secrecy?
State capture in Zimbabwe has become a cancer metastasizing across all sectors - and no institution appears willing or able to stop it.
ZACC, which should be leading the charge in probing the Chivayo scandal, has instead been preoccupied with arresting minor offenders, or worse, punishing whistleblowers.
The arrests of Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu - the very individuals who first brought attention to irregularities in the ZEC tender process - on unrelated charges, reeks of intimidation and retaliation.
That their arrests came soon after ZACC announced it was looking into the ZEC deal, only to then pivot away from it, shows how corruption cases are being weaponized to silence dissent rather than enforce justice.
It is clear that ZACC, along with other key institutions in Zimbabwe, has failed the constitutional mandate of upholding integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Instead of operating independently, it has become an appendage of the executive, shielding politically connected criminals while prosecuting convenient scapegoats.
If ZACC cannot even pursue a case already laid bare by South Africa's own credible investigative agencies, what confidence should Zimbabweans have in its integrity?
The situation today is arguably worse than it was under the late President Robert Mugabe.
For all his faults, Mugabe's administration at least established judicial commissions to investigate serious allegations of corruption - such as the Justice Sandura Commission, the Justice George Smith Commission, and the Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku Commission.
Though these often failed to result in convictions, the issues were at least acknowledged and placed on public record.
Under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we have not seen even that minimal effort.
Reports of high-level corruption are not only ignored, but the perpetrators are actively shielded - often paraded as model citizens and benefactors.
Those implicated in massive looting enjoy unfettered access to the corridors of power, frequently seen alongside the President himself at state functions, national events, and even in meetings with visiting heads of state.
This brazen endorsement from the highest office not only legitimizes their crimes but sends a chilling message to the nation: that corruption is not only tolerated - it is rewarded.
This complete disregard for transparency and justice makes it clear that the current administration has no intention of cleaning up the rot - because they are the rot.
The cost of this systemic corruption is staggering.
According to Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, Zimbabwe now ranks among the most corrupt countries in southern Africa, scoring a dismal 21 out of 100.
That's a national disgrace.
It's estimated that the country loses over US$3 billion annually to corruption, illicit financial flows, and public sector theft.
That money could have rebuilt and equipped our decaying hospitals, revamped our failing schools, modernized our power generation infrastructure, and restored dignity to a population forced to survive in conditions unworthy of human beings.
Instead, it lines the pockets of the politically connected and their foreign enablers.
We cannot speak about the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy without speaking about corruption.
It is the root cause of our infrastructure decay, our dire health delivery system, our broken educational institutions, and the exodus of millions of Zimbabweans to foreign lands.
No nation can thrive when its resources are captured and squandered with impunity, when elections are run by cartels, and when public officials turn a blind eye to obvious criminality because it benefits the ruling elite.
The time has come to take bold and decisive steps.
Zimbabwe urgently needs a truly independent and fully empowered judicial commission - in the mould of South Africa's Zondo Commission - to thoroughly investigate these high-level cases of corruption and state capture.
The commission must have the power to summon witnesses, seize documents, freeze assets, and recommend prosecutions without fear or favor.
Only such a process can begin to restore trust in public institutions.
Of course, calling for a judicial commission remains wishful thinking as long as those overseeing this rot are the very same individuals with the power to establish such an inquiry.
This glaring conflict of interest renders domestic accountability impossible - which is why we desperately need an alternative.
We urge foreign governments and international investigative bodies to continue shining a light on Zimbabwe's dark underbelly.
The courage and professionalism shown by South Africa's FIC, Revenue Service, and Hawks is commendable - and it is a reminder of what effective and independent institutions can do.
Other governments, particularly in jurisdictions where Zimbabwean elites may be hiding stolen assets or laundering money, must be proactive in investigating and prosecuting these crimes.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Switzerland, and others with strong financial sectors should now follow South Africa's example and do the right thing for the people of Zimbabwe.
They must demonstrate a commitment to justice by placing people over profit - refusing to become safe havens for wealth looted from one of the world's most impoverished nations.
Turning a blind eye to these illicit financial flows is not neutrality - it is complicity.
The fight against corruption is not just domestic - it is global.
Dirty money crosses borders, and so too must the pursuit of justice.
The global financial system cannot continue enabling plunderers who are impoverishing an entire nation.
The world must act.
As long as corruption is protected rather than prosecuted, as long as state institutions serve the powerful instead of the people, Zimbabwe will remain locked in a vicious cycle of poverty and repression.
The Chivayo scandal is not a deviation from the norm - it is the norm.
A symptom of a captured state.
And unless this cancer is confronted - with bold, independent, and international action - our future will remain hostage to those who profit from our pain.
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
There is something profoundly disturbing about the silence of Zimbabwean authorities in the wake of the damning exposé by South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and the elite Hawks investigative unit.
The scandal surrounding the South African company Ren-Form CC and its reported funneling of R800 million to firms allegedly linked to Zimbabwean tender mogul Wicknell Chivayo, after being awarded a lucrative Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) contract worth R1.1 billion, has sparked intense outrage - but not from where it matters most.
The absence of any formal, transparent response from Zimbabwe's Treasury, the ZEC, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), or any other state organ speaks louder than any denial ever could.
What we are witnessing is not mere indifference - it is complicity.
To directly receive articles from Tendai Ruben Mbofana, please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
The refusal to address allegations of this magnitude, which involve massive cross-border financial transactions potentially amounting to money laundering and electoral fraud, suggests that these individuals being implicated are not simply rogue actors operating in isolation.
Rather, they are plausibly working as runners, fronting for powerful political figures who use them to loot public funds while insulating themselves from direct scrutiny.
It is a model of corruption that has become all too familiar in Zimbabwe - politically connected individuals receive multi-million-dollar state contracts through opaque tender processes, only for those funds to vanish into a maze of shell companies and foreign bank accounts.
The beneficiaries flaunt obscene wealth - dishing out luxury cars to celebrities and public figures - while the architects of these schemes remain hidden behind the veil of political power.
Disturbingly, those implicated in corruption are now celebrated as role models and “philanthropists,” masking looted wealth as generosity.
These individuals have mastered the art of laundering their public image - taking advantage of the very poverty and underdevelopment they helped create through their looting of national resources.
By making flashy donations, handing out freebies, or even opening free clinics, they attempt to “cleanse” their vices and appear benevolent.
Yet the truth is far more sinister - they are not philanthropists but heartless criminals who robbed the nation blind, leaving citizens in such destitution that they are now forced to gratefully accept handouts from the very thieves who impoverished them in the first place.
This has dangerous consequences for our nation.
It is creating a toxic culture in which corruption is no longer viewed as criminal but rather as a symbol of cleverness and success in surviving Zimbabwe's economic hardships.
It becomes an aspiration, not an aberration.
This normalization of grand theft - even glamorizing it - erodes the moral fabric of society and embeds corruption deeper into our national psyche.
It teaches the youth that the path to wealth is not through hard work or innovation, but through political patronage and fraud.
A society that rewards plunder instead of integrity cannot prosper - it implodes from within.
Beyond the moral decay, such entrenched corruption poses a grave national security threat.
The unchecked flow of illicit money finances political patronage networks, arms criminal syndicates, fuels instability, and undermines public trust in institutions.
When citizens lose faith in government's willingness or ability to uphold the law, they begin to look elsewhere - even to violence - to resolve their grievances.
A captured state is inherently unstable.
The case of Wicknell Chivayo and the Ren-Form deal is an indictment not just of a man, but of an entire apparatus of state capture.
That Zimbabwe's elections were essentially privatized through such clandestine dealings - with a foreign firm hand-picked to supply everything from ballot papers to servers and toilets - raises the possibility that our electoral process is for sale to the highest bidder.
How can citizens have confidence in the credibility of any election when its logistics are shrouded in corruption and secrecy?
State capture in Zimbabwe has become a cancer metastasizing across all sectors - and no institution appears willing or able to stop it.
ZACC, which should be leading the charge in probing the Chivayo scandal, has instead been preoccupied with arresting minor offenders, or worse, punishing whistleblowers.
The arrests of Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu - the very individuals who first brought attention to irregularities in the ZEC tender process - on unrelated charges, reeks of intimidation and retaliation.
That their arrests came soon after ZACC announced it was looking into the ZEC deal, only to then pivot away from it, shows how corruption cases are being weaponized to silence dissent rather than enforce justice.
It is clear that ZACC, along with other key institutions in Zimbabwe, has failed the constitutional mandate of upholding integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Instead of operating independently, it has become an appendage of the executive, shielding politically connected criminals while prosecuting convenient scapegoats.
If ZACC cannot even pursue a case already laid bare by South Africa's own credible investigative agencies, what confidence should Zimbabweans have in its integrity?
The situation today is arguably worse than it was under the late President Robert Mugabe.
For all his faults, Mugabe's administration at least established judicial commissions to investigate serious allegations of corruption - such as the Justice Sandura Commission, the Justice George Smith Commission, and the Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku Commission.
Though these often failed to result in convictions, the issues were at least acknowledged and placed on public record.
Under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we have not seen even that minimal effort.
Reports of high-level corruption are not only ignored, but the perpetrators are actively shielded - often paraded as model citizens and benefactors.
Those implicated in massive looting enjoy unfettered access to the corridors of power, frequently seen alongside the President himself at state functions, national events, and even in meetings with visiting heads of state.
This brazen endorsement from the highest office not only legitimizes their crimes but sends a chilling message to the nation: that corruption is not only tolerated - it is rewarded.
This complete disregard for transparency and justice makes it clear that the current administration has no intention of cleaning up the rot - because they are the rot.
The cost of this systemic corruption is staggering.
According to Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, Zimbabwe now ranks among the most corrupt countries in southern Africa, scoring a dismal 21 out of 100.
That's a national disgrace.
It's estimated that the country loses over US$3 billion annually to corruption, illicit financial flows, and public sector theft.
That money could have rebuilt and equipped our decaying hospitals, revamped our failing schools, modernized our power generation infrastructure, and restored dignity to a population forced to survive in conditions unworthy of human beings.
Instead, it lines the pockets of the politically connected and their foreign enablers.
We cannot speak about the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy without speaking about corruption.
It is the root cause of our infrastructure decay, our dire health delivery system, our broken educational institutions, and the exodus of millions of Zimbabweans to foreign lands.
No nation can thrive when its resources are captured and squandered with impunity, when elections are run by cartels, and when public officials turn a blind eye to obvious criminality because it benefits the ruling elite.
The time has come to take bold and decisive steps.
Zimbabwe urgently needs a truly independent and fully empowered judicial commission - in the mould of South Africa's Zondo Commission - to thoroughly investigate these high-level cases of corruption and state capture.
The commission must have the power to summon witnesses, seize documents, freeze assets, and recommend prosecutions without fear or favor.
Only such a process can begin to restore trust in public institutions.
Of course, calling for a judicial commission remains wishful thinking as long as those overseeing this rot are the very same individuals with the power to establish such an inquiry.
This glaring conflict of interest renders domestic accountability impossible - which is why we desperately need an alternative.
We urge foreign governments and international investigative bodies to continue shining a light on Zimbabwe's dark underbelly.
The courage and professionalism shown by South Africa's FIC, Revenue Service, and Hawks is commendable - and it is a reminder of what effective and independent institutions can do.
Other governments, particularly in jurisdictions where Zimbabwean elites may be hiding stolen assets or laundering money, must be proactive in investigating and prosecuting these crimes.
Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Switzerland, and others with strong financial sectors should now follow South Africa's example and do the right thing for the people of Zimbabwe.
They must demonstrate a commitment to justice by placing people over profit - refusing to become safe havens for wealth looted from one of the world's most impoverished nations.
Turning a blind eye to these illicit financial flows is not neutrality - it is complicity.
The fight against corruption is not just domestic - it is global.
Dirty money crosses borders, and so too must the pursuit of justice.
The global financial system cannot continue enabling plunderers who are impoverishing an entire nation.
The world must act.
As long as corruption is protected rather than prosecuted, as long as state institutions serve the powerful instead of the people, Zimbabwe will remain locked in a vicious cycle of poverty and repression.
The Chivayo scandal is not a deviation from the norm - it is the norm.
A symptom of a captured state.
And unless this cancer is confronted - with bold, independent, and international action - our future will remain hostage to those who profit from our pain.
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
Source - Tendai Ruben Mbofana
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